6 days ago
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- Washington Post
The biggest moments in D.C. drag history
Why might Washington, a famously buttoned-up town where everyone cares about their reputation, have a particularly vibrant drag tradition?
Mark Meinke, who spearheaded the creation of the Rainbow History Project, which collects, preserves and promotes Washington's LGBTQ+ history, has an answer. Also an expert on the area's drag legacy, Meinke says that because jobs in government or politics often attracted temporary residents, Washington became an environment where people felt free to experiment — including with drag — in a way they might not have back home. And the transience meant that 'people who would not normally have met each other did, and that proved a fertile ground for innovating,' he says.
Drag is a rich field that invites questions about gender, sexuality, identity, political expression and more. Over the course of U.S. drag history, which has included the female impersonators of 19th-century minstrel shows and the popularity of Harlem drag balls in the 1920s and '30s, race and ethnicity have added fault lines. For a long time in Washington, 'African American performers usually performed with other African American performers, Caucasians with Caucasians, Hispanic with Hispanic, Asians with Asians,' says Meinke. 'And it wasn't until the '70s, when there was an out gay population, that a lot of crossing those lines occurred.'
Local drag history will be in the spotlight — possibly amid effusions of feathers and rhinestones — when Blair Michaels hosts 'Drag Through the Decades' on June 8. The former Miss Capital Pride 1999 says the brunch event at Mr. Henry's will pay tribute to how the art form has flourished in the Washington area over the past 50 years. Local VIPs will perform, and the soundtrack will sample a half century's worth of tunes, from Diana Ross to Beyoncé.
'You have to go back to look forward. You have to learn from the past,' Michaels says.
In honor of 'Drag Through the Decades' and WorldPride, here are a few milestones from local drag history.
On April 13, 1888, The Washington Post reported on a police raid at a house on F Street NW where 13 Black men were dining in fashionable gowns and wigs 'decked out with ribbons in a style that was simply dazzling.' Resisting the police operation that night was a dinner attendee wearing 'a gorgeous dress of cream colored satin.' This was William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved man who organized other cross-dressing events in this era, according to the research of journalist and scholar Channing Gerard Joseph. The Washington Critic referred to Swann as the 'queen' of the April 1888 'drag party.'
In the 1920s and '30s, what is now called the 'Pansy Craze' (a reference to the historical use of the term 'pansy' for gay or effeminate men) gripped parts of the world, including the Washington-Baltimore area. Black female impersonators Alden Garrison and Louis Diggs became stars who received regular press coverage. In June 1935, the Washington Tribune reported that after being named Alexandria's 'queen' at an event at that town's Capitol Theatre, 'Mother' Diggs was so mobbed by fascinated spectators as to have trouble reaching a waiting car.
In 1961, Liz Taylor, a.k.a. Alan Kress, founded a drag-focused social organization that ultimately became known (after a schism, a reboot and a moniker challenge from Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) as the Academy of Washington. The Academy organized award pageants and provided safe performance sites, mentoring and community. Affiliated with it were various drag 'houses' that also furnished mentorship in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Before the institution closed in 2015, 'one thing that made D.C. special was having the Academy, because you could come here and learn how to do [drag] from people who knew what they were doing,' Meinke says, noting that the Academy welcomed people irrespective of race or sex.
The Academy's HOOP Fund ('Helping Our Own People') ramped up during the AIDS crisis, tending to the sick, and more. 'If your family abandoned you and weren't going to bury you, HOOP would bury you,' Meinke says.
Meinke says that Washington never had the legal prohibitions against public cross-dressing that Maryland and Virginia had. Still, the major hotels in the district banned drag until the impresario Ken White, an organizer of opportunities for Black drag artists, who was also known as Black Pearl, shattered precedent. White convinced the Washington Hilton to let him mount his awards gala there in February 1968. It was a formal-attire-only event that officially ran until 3 a.m.
That landmark bash notwithstanding, local drag often flourished in bars and clubs. Because performers brought their own music and costumes and so were a cost-effective source of zing, 'for clubs in D.C., drag was a godsend,' Meinke says.
On Halloween night 1986, a couple dozen none-too-sober pals bolted down a Dupont Circle street, kicking off what became Washington's annual High Heel Race. As recounted in a drag-history walking tour brochure that Meinke wrote, the inaugural contest careened from JR's Bar & Grill to nearby Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, where the racers dashed upstairs for a shot of schnapps before doubling back to JR's. These days, the race, with its costumes, stilettos and platforms, is a high-profile annual event.
In 1996, Washington's first drag king competition took place at the Hung Jury bar. The winner, now known as Ken Vegas, went on to become a generative force for the local drag king scene, including the regular shows that ran at Chaos in the Dupont Circle area in the early 2000s. Historian Bonnie Morris, now at the University of California at Berkeley, attended the Chaos nights regularly when she lived in the area and remembers that 'the routines became very sophisticated,' tackling topics like gender roles in wartime. But playfulness also reigned. 'There would be an opener where all the kings would parade through and hand out lollipops.'
The popularity of 'RuPaul's Drag Race' has elevated the form's visibility. But on-screen drag can be competition for in-person performers, observes Regina Jozet Adams, a local drag celebrity: 'Why bother going to the clubs when you can sit in your PJs, pop some popcorn and stream as much drag as you can tolerate?'
Drag has also been in the political crosshairs of late. Still, says Dylan B. Dickherson White, Mx. Capital Pride 2024 — who will contribute an Elton John homage to 'Drag Through the Decades' — the art form is right for the current moment, offering catharsis to both performer and viewer. 'Acts that are completely exuberant and joyful — it's a defiance in itself,' they say.
Mr. Henry's, 601 Pennsylvania Ave. SE.
Date: June 8 (two seatings).
Price: $25 admission includes unlimited mimosas and 'Blairtinis.'
